The Historical and Archaeological Museum of Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel) is located in the Ramat Aviv area. Its exhibition pavilions focus on the millennia of the Land of Israel.
The museum was founded in 1953, just five years after the establishment of the State of Israel. Its pavilions are located in the garden, each dedicated to a different theme: ceramics, coins, copperware, glass. A special pavilion demonstrates ancient methods of weaving, baking, jewellery and pottery. But the main thing here is a huge number of archaeological exhibits, among which there are unique.
The emergence of the museum is associated with the name of the elder Israeli archaeologist Benjamin Mazar, who began searching for hidden antiquities in the Holy Land in 1932. He was the first to be authorised by the newly established Jewish State in 1948 to begin excavations at Tel Kasil on the banks of the Yarkon River. Back in 1815, the socialite and traveller Lady Esther Lucy Stanhope claimed that there was an ancient settlement in this place. The lady was not mistaken. Benjamin Mazar discovered the ruins of a Philistine city from the 12th century BC. Now in the pit on the territory of the museum you can examine artefacts of twelve different cultural layers, up to the Islamic era.
Here are the remains of the walls of three ancient temples, built one on top of the other. The walls are made of sun-dried bricks covered with light-coloured plaster, and there are low benches along the walls inside. The nearby dwellings are built according to the same standard, their area is about 100 square metres, each with two rooms and a patio.
The exhibits give an opportunity to get acquainted with the course of one of the first technological revolutions in human history, marked by the development of copper. The Eneolithic (the era of transition from the Stone Age to the Copper Age) dates back to the 4th millennium BC. This is the age of the primitive smelting furnace presented in the museum. More advanced domed furnaces date from the 13th to 14th centuries BC. At that time, the Egyptians smelted copper in what is now Israel, and many copper statuettes and cartouches remain from them.
Of particular interest is a copper serpent with a gilded head - a similar one is mentioned in the Old Testament, in the Book of Numbers. When the Jews of the Exodus began to suffer from poisonous serpents, Moses, at God's direction, erected a serpent of brass, at the sight of which the bitten person was kept alive. In time the children of Israel began to worship this idol, giving it the name Nehushtan, and then King Hezekiah "destroyed the serpent of brass" (4 Samuel 18:4). The pavilion dedicated to the Copper Age is called "Nehushtan".
The museum has one of the largest numismatic collections in Israel, with coins dating back to the 6th century BC. The pavilion dedicated to crafts exhibits tools from all eras: flint knives, mills, looms, weaving looms and woodworking tools. The collection of the glass pavilion begins with Late Bronze Age items. Roman glass perfume bottles, very similar to modern ones, are amusing.
